February 19th

A bill that would permit government entities to forego publishing public notices in newspapers was killed by the House of Representatives' committee on local government February 5.

House Bill 1135, introduced by Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, would have allowed school boards, local and county governments and state government to post financial reports and notice of elections, bids, financial reports, meetings and minutes on the Internet instead of in newspapers.

During a banguet meeting at the Philip American Legion Hall on Monday, February 16, board members of Central Harvest States Midwest Cooperative announced that South Dakota cooperative members are sharing in a $20.7 million disbursement.

This is a result of the energy and grain-based foods company's record fiscal 2008 earnings. This marks a fifth consecutive record return to owners by CHS and is the largest ever made by a United States cooperative.

A little over a minute ... Tony Torendell, left, and Loren Opstedahl, along with four other crew members, calm the ewes and easily manuever them for shearing. Other workers collect and bail the wool, while ranch hands keep the wooly animals coming into the work trailer and the shorn animals going back to the pasture.

The long trailer sat toward the back of the huge quonset, the trailer's left side completely opened. The right side was a two-level runway for sheep, the upper for mostly ewes and some rams herded in for shearing, while lower chutes lead the shorn animals back out to the pasture behind the quonset.

Every minute and some seconds, one of the six men pushed a shorn sheep out and smoothly reaches for a wooly one.

The board of education for Haakon School District 27-1 will have two seats open for the April 14 election.

Kelly Blair's and Matt Reedy's at-large terms are to expire. Petitions, with at least 20 signatures of registered voters within the school district, must be filed before 5:00 p.m. on February 27. Any registered voter within the school district may run.